Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The Administrator can take costs, health impacts, environmental impacts,
and energy requirements into account in setting the standards; he can
distinguish among classes, types, and sizes of sources; and he must review the
standards at least every eight years.
Regulating Existing Sources Under Section 111
In addition to standards for new sources, Section 111 requires that EPA
develop guidelines applicable to GHG emissions from
existing
units whenever
it promulgates standards for new sources in a category (Section 111(d)). Using
the guidelines, states would be required to develop performance standards for
existing sources. These standards could be less stringent than the NSPS, taking
into account, among other factors, the remaining useful life of the existing
source to which the standard applies. Nevertheless, these standards might have
far greater impact than the NSPS, given that existing power plants are the
largest U.S. source of GHG emissions.
The authority to control existing sources is particularly important in
sectors like the electric utility industry, where old units can continue operating
for decades. The average coal-fired power plant in the United States is more
than 40 years old. Without the authority to control emissions from such
existing facilities, it could be decades before emissions from most power
plants would be controlled.
How quickly Section 111(d) standards will be applied to existing sources
has been an open question, however. EPA must first propose and promulgate
guidelines, following which the states will be given time to develop
implementation plans. In the President's June 25 memorandum, he requested
that EPA:
i.
issue proposed guidelines for modified, reconstructed, and existing
power plants by no later than June 1, 2014;
ii.
issue final guidelines by no later than June 1, 2015; and
iii.
include in the guidelines addressing existing power plants a
requirement that states submit to EPA the implementation plans
required under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act by no later than
June 30, 2016.
Following approval of the plans, the act envisions case-by-case
determinations of emission limits. Thus, it is likely to be several years before
